6th Agriculture Census begins

The sixth Agriculture Census began in the country on Sunday to collect latest information on crops, fisheries and livestock resources, reports UNB.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the census will continue till 20 June.

Planning minister MA Mannan inaugurated the census at the BBS Building in the city.

Agriculture contributes 13.31 per cent to the country's GDP where 40 per cent people are directly and indirectly involved.

The census is being conducted as per the guideline of World Programme for the Census of Agriculture-2020 (WCA 2020) of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Modular Approach will be followed for data collection. A short questionnaire will be used initially and later, sample census will be conducted through a long questionnaire in farm households.

"A total of 144,044 data collectors will work in the field. They'll be overseen by 23,142 supervisors. There'll be coordinators at the upazila, district, divisional and national levels," said Jafor Ahmed Khan, project director and joint secretary at the planning ministry.

The BBS arranged a three-day training session for the divisional and district level census coordinators in Dhaka last month.

The last Agriculture Census was held in 2008.